The management at the Cocoa Beach Pier figures one way to retain a quality work force is to boost pay. Last year, management hiked pay for new employees to $11 an hour for non-tipped, non-commissioned team members.

This year it went up to $12 an hour for new employees. Hourly workers who get tips got a $1-an-hour increase. At the pier, about 80 employees are impacted by the pay boost.

The current Florida minimum wage is $8.25 per hour.

"We do our best to be pro-active to their needs," said Jim Gissy, co-owner of the Cocoa Beach Pier. "We give them Publix gift cards during holidays and all sorts of other little perks that we hope make working at the Cocoa Beach Pier the best job on the Space Coast.

"While we continue to invest millions in upgrading the physical pier facility, we think it’s even more important to invest in our team members."

The Cocoa Beach Pier is co-owned by Westgate Resorts, the timeshare resort company founded by David Siegel.

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Awai Ku'ualoha, a bartender at the Cocoa Beach Pier, is all smiles about a recent pay boost.(Photo: Wayne T. Price/FLORIDA TODAY)

Gissy also credits last year's somewhat controversial Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, enacted under the Trump administration, which, among other things, cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent beginning in 2018.

Gissy said it was important for him that workers also benefit in that tax cut.

"As a major Brevard County/Cocoa Beach tourist landmark, we often cater to first-time visitors to the area and we want the best, the brightest and the friendliest to make that first impression," Gissy said. "We also want to take care of our local-area guests who visit us often and continue to provide them with a first-class destination to visit with their families.

"In either case, we believe the Trump tax cuts will have a huge benefit to the bottom line of our business and we want to make sure that the tax cut also benefits the hard-working men and women who are part of our team."

Awai Ku'ualoha, a bartender at the pier, put it succinctly: "It's nice to be recognized like this."

To give an idea of how tight the labor market is, the local unemployment rate has not been this low since April 2006, when it was 2.8 percent. Then, the Brevard labor force was 258,044. Now it's 260,931.

Contact Price at 321-242-3658 or wprice@floridatoday.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @Fla2dayBiz.